RIENZI, COLA DI, the famouS Roman tribune, was b. at Rome in 1313. His parent age was humble, his father being a tavern-keeper, named Lorenzo (by abbreviation Rienzo), and his mother a washerwoman. Until his twentieth year he lived among the peasants of Anagni; then he returned to his native city, where he studied grammar and rhetoric, read and reread the Latin historians, philosophers, and poets (Greek was scarcely yet known in Italy), and excited his imagination, while at the same time he colored his speech with the prophetic enthusiasm of the inspired writers. The assas sination of his brother by a Roman noble, whom he found it impossible to bring to pun ishment, is considered to be the incident that filially determined him to deliver the city, as soon as he was able, from the barbarous thralldom of the barons. He assumed the significant title of "consul of orphans, widows, and the poor." In 1343 he was appointed by the heads of the Guelph party spokesman or orator of a deputation sent to the papal court at Avignon to beseech Clement VI. to return to Rome in order to protect the citizens from the tyranny of their oppressors. Here he formed a close friend4iip with Petrarch; through whose assistance he obtained a favorable hearing from his holi ness, who appointed him notary to the city chamber. In April, 1344, Rienzi returned home, and sought to obtain the countenance of the magistrates in his ideas of reform; but reform, he found, was impossible without revolution; yet he did not conspire, prop erly speaking, to the very last moment. During three years he loudly and openly— perhaps even ostentatiously—menaced the nobles, for the enthusiasm of Rienzi for a nobler and juster- government, though sincere, was showy and vain. The reason why the nobles took no steps to crush him was because they thought him mad. At last when Rienzi thought he could rely on the support of the citizens he summoned them together on May 20, 1347, and surrounded by 100 horsemen and the papal legate he delivered a magnificent discourse, and proposed a series of laws for the better government of the community, which he termed it buono stato, and which were unanimously approved of. The aristocratic senators were driven out of the city, and Rienzi was invested with die tutorial power. He took the title of " tribune of liberty, peace, and justice," and chose the papal legate for his colleague, but reserved to himself the direction of affairs. after haviwr, however, suggested the institution of a syndicate, to which he should be respon sible, The pope confirmed the eloquent dictator in his authority; all Italy rejoiced in his success, and foreign lands, even warlike France (according to Petraren), began to dread the reviving majesty of the eternal city'. A bright dream now seems to hay..• flashed across Rienzi's imagination—the unity of Italy and the supremacy of Rome' Every great Italian has dreamed that dream from Dante to 3Iazzini. Rienzi dispatched messengers to the various Italian states, requesting them to send deputies to Rome to consult for the general interests of the peninsula, and to devise measures for its unifica tion. These messengers were everywhere received with enthusiasm, and on Aug. 1, 1317, 200 deputies assembled in the Lateran church, where Rienzi declared that the choice of an emperor of the holy Roman empire belonged to the Roman people, nod sunnnon6d Ludvig of Bavaria and Karl of Bohemia, who were then disputants for the dignity, to compear before him. The step was wildly impolitic. Rienzi had no inateria?
power to enable him to give efficacy to his splendid assumption. The pope was indig nant at the transference of authority from himself to his subjects: and the barons, taking advantage of certein ceremonial extravagances which the dictator had com mitted, and which had diminished the popular regard for him, gathered together their forces, and renewed their devastations. After some ineffectual resistance Rienzi resigned his functions, weeping all the while, and withdrew from Rome, which was entered by the barons two days after. His tenure of power had lasted only seven months. In the solitudes of the Neapolitan Apennines, where he found refuge, Rienzi would seem to have recovered his enthusiasm and his faith. Regarding his fall as ajust chastisement of God for his love of worldy vanities lie joined an order of Franciscan hermits, and spent nearly two years in exercises of piety and penitence—all the while, however, cherishing the hope that he would one day "deliver" Rome again. Thi,1 ambition to play a distinguished part made him readily listen to a brother-monk, whc, about the middle of 1350, declared that, according to the prophecies of Joachim of Flores, of C3:rillus. and of Merlin. Rienzi was destined, by the help of the emperor Karl IV., to introduce a new era of happiness into the world. Rienzi betook himself at once to Prague, and announced to the emperor that in a year and a half a new hier archy would be established in the church, and under a new pope Karl would reign in the west and Rienzi in the east. Karl, not knowing very well what, to say in reply to such language, thought it safest to put the " prophet" in prison, and then wrote to inform his friend the'pope of the matter. In July, 1351, Rienzi was transferred to Avignon, where proceedings were opened against hint in reference to his exercise of tribunitial power. He was condemned to death, but his life was spared at the earnest entreaties of Petrareh and others; and the next two years were spent in an easy confinement in the French papal city. Meanwhile the state of matters at Rome had become worse than ever. The great families were even more factious, more anarchical, more desperately fond of spilling blood than formerly: and at last Innocent VI. sent cardinal Athornoz to re-establish order. Rienzi was also released from prison, and accompanied the car dinal. A residence was assigned him at Perugia; but in Aug., 1354, having borrowed money, and raised a small body of soldiers, he made a sort of triumphal entry into Rome, and was received with universal acclamations. But misfortune had impaired and debased his character; he abandoned himself to good living, and his once generous sentiments had given place to a hard, mistrustful, and cruel disposition. The barons refused to recognize his government, and fortified themselves in their castles. The war against them necessitated the contraction of heavy expenses: the people grumbled; Rienzi only grew more severe and capricious in his exactions and punishments. In two months his rule had become intolerable, and on Oct. 8 an infuriated crowd surrounded him in the capitol, and put him to death with ferocious indignities. •